It is a rather tiny sum for a "decent size" game project (usually, when muggles or even starting game devs talk about "decent size", they talk about AAA-ish or at least very large Indie project sizes... which cost north of 1'000'000$, sometimes 10 times more. LArge AAA go up to many 100 millions of $).

So if you want to make anything more than a small web or phone game with it, you need to spend that money REALLY smart, ideally invest some of your time and skill (that you hopefully have if you want to make anything with such a tiny sum of money) to reduce the cost of the game somewhat.

Your project will need to be cut down to size, because even creating the static 3D assets for a single small AAA level might cost much more than that. Without assembly by a level designer, all the planning that needs to take place before it, coding or any characters and enemies that should fill that level.

Then there is the whole issue with spending this sum on a project that will, most probably, fail. No matter how good you think your game idea is, most probably it is not. Even if it is as good as you think it is, the execution of that idea is what makes or breaks a game. A good execution of a stupid idea can still make a very successfull game... the other way round will seldom result in a runaway success.

Sadly, good execution needs good and skilled people, and will cost more money and time.

So most probably, whatever you can have produced with that money will not be successfull in the market, save some brilliant idea that can be produced cheaply in a short time, and will set the gamin market ablaze Minecraft style.

Recently there was a discussion about that on this forum. Somebody mentioned that even for expierienced studios, only 1 out of 10 started projects are successfull. Thus either you only invest 3000$ per project, or you risk all your money on a project that has 10% statistical chance to become a success. How is that not throwing money out of the window?

If you want to just make game for fun, then go ahead, and do it. Personally I would rather start learning game development myself instead of throwing money at other people hoping they will make my ideas a reality. But to each his own. If you want to have your ideas turned into a game, but lack the skill for it and the patience/time to aquire these skills, by all means, invest your money into your project.

Just be aware, 30k$ is almost nothing even for an expierienced project lead with a very modest idea. The project you could do with that sum of money most people wouldn't call "decent", outside of phone games and some special genres (like Indie games with retro or very stylized graphics)

Congratulations. Might I suggest you pile it all in your back yard and set fire to instead? It will likely be a far more entertaining use of the funds and will have about the same net result.

That made my day, man. Couldn't have said it better

If you really want to invest your 30k into a game project then why don't you just buy shares in an existing game company.
Many game companies have shares openly traded on various stock exchanges world wide.

Even some of the smaller studios have shares available. Heres the Google finance info on Frontier Developments:

http://www.google.co.uk/finance?cid=143305947622647

Your money is more likely to net you some return and possibly even dividends if you invest in a real company rather than some game project that may never even see completion.

Of course take this with a pinch of salt. I am not a financial advisor but if you go and see one and explain that you want to invest in games related companies they will be able to create you a sensible package.

invest into a game project.

Depends what you're going to "DO".

If you invest in assets/tools/etc. but actually develop and design the game yourself, it could help you tremendously being a basement indie and could lead to a decent game.

My advice, in this case, would be to sit on this cash for a long while, retain any day job you may have, and consider the design phase carefully (if you do it at night and on weekend, it doesn't cost you a dime!). Once you ARE satisfied with your first pass, show it to other developers, and work on it some more.

When you have something solid, start working on it part-time, and when you're absolutely blocked and are in need of assets/tools, start to spend if you feel you have something you are likely to finish. Spend as late as possible, even if you feel you totally need this or that.

If your intent is to step back, just infuse an idea, and pay a team to get it done, that's not nearly enough money to get anywhere sadly. Might want to invest in stock options of something unrelated to videogames and make it grow, then come back when you've got 5-10 times this amount.

Alternatively, screening the web for a serious indie team that has a promising project halfway through, and a defunct kickstarter but that you feel their project has merit could lead to some form of partnership where you finance their last stretch and cash in on sales. Think of it this way, without that money, the game will either never make it out, or it will, but a lot of the original scope will be broken to pieces and the overall experience may be incoherent. You're giving them a chance to complete their last few efforts, possibly contribute yourself, and cash in. Of course, being able to determine whether a game will work or not requires a lot of business acumen, and even so, you could fail, but it may be an experience worth having if this is an angle you'd like to refine for the future.